Dana White: Relinquishing Featherweight Belt was 'Conor’s Decision'

It's been a few days since the UFC announced that lightweight champion Conor McGregor had "relinquished" his featherweight belt, but the notoriously outspoken fighter has yet to comment on the news. UFC president Dana White, however, has.

"Do you think I just did this? This was Conor’s decision," said White to Yahoo Sports.

Many fans had assumed that McGregor was forced to give up a belt and White is desperate to set the record straight.

“Look, I let Conor fight [Nate] Diaz and then I let him fight Diaz again,” White said. “Then there was the whole 155-pound thing I let him do. But at the end of the day, him doing that tied up the division for a year. There’s a logjam there and a lot of guys were [angry].

Fighters were angry because despite being named featherweight champion by defeating Jose Aldo, he had yet to defend the title. White allowed McGregor to hold on to the belt long enough to become the UFC's first ever two divisional champion, but warned him he'd need to give one belt up after UFC 205. So he did.

"Do you think I just did this? This was Conor’s decision."

Aldo, who was holding the interim title while McGregor frolicked in other divisions, was named undisputed champ and Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis will fight for the interim title.

“This was my way to fix the logjam," he said. "I wanted Aldo to fight Holloway for the belt, but he needed more time. So I looked at it and I said, well, it makes sense to make Aldo the champion and then have Holloway and Pettis fight for the interim title, and when Jose’s ready, barring any crazy injuries, the winner can fight him.”

That's one way of fixing the situation, but it leaves the UFC's most popular fighter with just one belt on his shoulder.